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Education Health and Care Plans

All parents want the best for their children but some children will need extra help to progress at school. If you child or young person has severe or complex difficulties they may need more help than a school can provide from their own resources.

Your child or young person may need a Education, Health and Care Needs Assessment to find out what their difficulties are and what help they need to learn better. The assessment process may result in the production of an Education Health and Care (EHC) Plan for your child or young person.

More information on what a Education, Health and Care plan is can be found at:

An Education, Heath and Care needs assessment is the process whereby the local authority establishes your child or young person’s special educational needs to decide whether they need support through an EHC plan.

Parents, young people (beyond compulsory school age), schools and other professionals can request an Education, Health and Care Needs Assessment.

If you are a parent who is electively home educating your child and your child has severe or complex difficulties that may need more help than you can provide from your own resources, you can also request an Education, Health and Care Needs Assessment.

If you are requesting an Education, Health and Care Needs Assessment you will need to make your request to the Special Educational Needs Team. You can do this by writing to the SEN Team at East Riding of Yorkshire Council or by email, please see contact details below:

SEN Team ( East Riding of Yorkshire)

County Hall

Beverley

HU17 9BA

email: send.enquiries@eastriding.gov.uk

Please include details of your child or young person’s and their needs including thier educational setting and if other agencies/services are already involved. Details of the process can be found on the Education, Health and Care Needs Assessment Flowchart below:

Through the Education, Health and Care process parent carers can get support from an Independent Supporter to offer advice and support.

To request support from an Independent Supporter please contact the East Riding SENDIASS or Kids. Kids can also offer independent advice for young people (16plus) through the process. Contact details can be found below under the question 'Where do go for advice and support?

Stage 1 (0 to 6 weeks):

Once the Local Authority receives the request for assessment from the Parent carer / Young person or education setting, the local authority considers the request and must not take more than six weeks to formally respond.

If the local authority decides not to carry out an Education, Health and Care needs assessment they should provide feedback. Information and evidence gathered during the assessment process may be useful to the parents and the school in helping to meet the child or young person’s needs without an Education, Health and Care plan.

Stage 2 (6 to 16 weeks):

If the local authority agrees to carry out an Education, Health and Care needs assessment they ask specialists, including teachers and the parents, to produce reports about the child for the assessment process. These reports will help them decide if the child or young person needs an Education, Health and Care plan or not.

If the Local Authority decides not to issue a Education, Health and Care Plan you will be given the reasons in writing.

Stage 3 (16-20 weeks):

If the local authority decides to issue an Education, Health and Care plan they must produce a draft Education, Health and Care plan. Parents and/or young people (if beyond compulsory school age) must be given 15 calendar days to suggest changes to the draft Education, Health and Care plan and express a preference for the education provider they want their child or young person to go to. The local authority must ensure that the whole process (from request to final Educaiton, Health and Care plan) is completed within 20 weeks.

An Education, Health and Care plan names the education provider that the child or young person must go to. Most children and young people with Education, Health and Care plans go to mainstream providers.

The parent has a right to send the child or young person to a mainstream provider. However, the education provider must be able to meet the child or young person’s special educational needs and the effect of the child or young person on the education of others will also be a crucial factor.

All statements of SEN are to transfer to Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans by 31 March 2018. The Local Authority has increased their resource to work on completing those remaining statements to EHC plans, and is on target to achieve this by 31 March 2018. Please be reassured that if your child or young person's statement is not transferred to an EHC plan by this deadline then the statement of SEN and the provision set out in this will remain in place.

The education provider should meet with the parent/carer and/or young person to discuss what information is available through the statement and from any other reports to agree whether it is sufficient to complete the transfer onto an Education, Health and Care Plan. To ensure this is a speedy process it is helpful if all the necessary information is available at the time of the Transfer Review Meeting taking place. There has to be at least two weeks notice of the transfer review meeting been held. Once the meeting has been held there is another 18 weeks in which to complete the process.

The report format has been changed to reflect the format required for an Education, Health and Care Plan. It is this format that should be issued to all those who will be contributing to the Transfer Review.

There is also a report devised for parent/carers, children or young people to gather there view through the process. Please note that a child becomes a young person under this legislation when they are no longer of compulsory school age (end of Year 11) when legal rights pass from the parent/carers to the young person. In addition young people have to receive information and can make decisions in their own right if they have the capacity to do so.

Further process details can be found on the Transfer Review Flowchart document below:

Your child’s Education, Health and Care Plan will be reviewed at least once per year. Education providers will remain responsible for arranging the Education, Health and Care Plan review meeting and inviting you, and other relevant professionals (e.g. a SEN Officer, a health service representative, Educational Psychologist, social worker) to attend. All children and young people will be invited to contribute and/or attend.

At each review consideration will be given as to whether your child has achieved the education or training outcomes specified in the plan and whether they continue to need support. Young people who continue to require support to achieve the educational and training outcomes in young adulthood will keep their Education, Health and Care Plan until no later than the academic year in which they turn 25.

There will only be a need to carry out an Education, Health and Care (EHC) needs assessment and issue an Education, Health and Care Plan, if the Health and/or Social Care needs are impacting on your child/young person’s access to the curriculum and as a result they would not be making the expected progress. There are separate processes for meeting Health and Social Care needs and these processes should continue to be followed. The Education, Heath and Care Needs assessment and issuing of an Education,Health and Care Plan does not replace these duties.

After compulsory school age (the end of the school year when your child turns 16) he will have specific decision-making rights about EHC Plans including the right to request that a particular school or college is named and the right to appeal if he disagrees about the provision set out in his EHC Plan.

You can still be involved in supporting him to make decisions, or act on his behalf if he is happy for you to do so. The SEND Code makes clear that when a young person is under 18 the involvement of parents is particularly important and schools and colleges should normally involve you

Once you have decided that elective home education is the right choice for you and your child, there are two options depending on the type of school that your child has been attending:

* If your child attends a mainstream school, you must write to the Head teacher and inform them of your decision to electively home educate and the date from which you will be educating your child from. The school will then de-register your child from the school roll and inform the Education Welfare Service.

* If your child attends a special school or special provision that is named on their Statement of Special Educational Needs or Education, Health and Care Plan, you must contact the Education Welfare Service, who will discuss your proposal to electively home educate your child with you. Once confident that your proposal is satisfactory the Education Welfare Service will instruct your child's education provider to de-register them from the school roll.

In the first instance it would be good to speak to your Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO) at the early years setting, school , college or education provider to discuss the decision further.

You can also contact an Education, Health and Care Commissioning Officer based within the Children’s Commissioning and Quality Monitoring Team for at the Local Authority.

The Local Authority has two services which deal with disagreements in relation to Education, Health and Care assessments and plans. Depending on the type of disagreement determines which service you would use. Both services are independent of the Local Authority, free to access and delivered by KIDS.

1. Disagreement Resolution Service - will offer disagreements resolution to parent carers and young people to help resolve disagreements about any aspect of Education, Health and Care provision.

2. Mediation Service - This service is used for any decision that could lead to an appeal to the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Tribunal as follows:

• Refusal to assess• Refusal to issue a EHC Plan• Cease to maintain a EHC Plan • Disagreement about the description of need, provision to meet those needs and/or placement in an EHC Plan.

You must consider mediation before appealing in every case apart from an appeal about placement only.

Advice and support:

To find out where you can get support and advice if you are not happy with any aspect of your child or young person special educational provision please view the 'Where do I go for support ?' section below.

Single Route of Redress – National Trial - started 3 April 2018

What is the National Trial?

The Government are extending the powers of the First-tier Tribunal (SEND), sometimes referred to as the ‘SEND Tribunal’, to make non-binding recommendations about the health and social care aspects of Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans as part of a two-year trial. The trial will apply to decisions made or EHC plans issued/amended from 3 April 2018.

To date, you have only been able to appeal the educational aspects of EHC plans. The trial gives you new rights to request recommendations about the health and social care needs and provision specified in EHC plans, in addition to the educational aspects, when making a SEND appeal. This gives you the opportunity to raise all your concerns about an EHC plan in one place.

It is only possible for the Tribunal to consider the health and/or social care aspects of the EHC plan where you are already making an appeal in relation to the education aspects of the EHC plan and the education aspect must remain live throughout the appeal.

What does this mean for parents and young people?

If you are unhappy with a decision not to issue an EHC plan, or with the special educational content or placement in the plan, you can make an appeal to the SEND Tribunal. This trial now gives you the opportunity to also request recommendations about the health and social care content of the plan at the same time. This will mean the Tribunal will take a more holistic, person-centred view of the needs of the child or young person.

This does not prevent you also complaining about other aspects of your disagreement through other complaint procedures. You should seek advice about the different routes available, including from your local SEND Information Advice and Support Service ( SENDIASS) on (01482) 396469.

If the SEND Tribunal makes a recommendation about health or social care elements of an EHC plan, this is non-binding. The local authority and/or health commissioner is generally expected to follow such recommendations, but they are not legally binding. Where they are not followed, the reasons for not following them must be explained and set-out in writing to you and to the Department for Education through the evaluators. If they are not followed, you can complain to:

or seek to have the decision judicially reviewed. Further information on the roles of these bodies can be found on their websites.

When can a parent or young person request recommendations about the health and social care elements of an EHC plan?

You can request the Tribunal makes recommendations about the health and/or social care aspects of EHC plans as part of an appeal relating to: • the description of the child/young person’s special educational needs in an EHC plan • the special educational provision specified in an EHC plan • the school or other educational institution named in an EHC plan• a decision by the local authority not to issue an EHC plan • a decision by the local authority not to carry out a re-assessment for a child/young person who has an EHC plan • a decision by the local authority not to amend an EHC plan following a review or re-assessment • a decision by the local authority to cease to maintain an EHC plan

What does this mean for local areas?

The Trial places responsibility on local authority SEN teams to:1. Inform parents and young people of their new rights through decision letters and the local offer 2. Provide evidence to the Tribunal from the health and social care bodies in response to any issues raised within the timeframe set by the Tribunal, seeking permission to bring additional witnesses to the hearing as necessary3. If a recommendation has been made, send the health and social care response letters to the evaluators at SENDletters@IFFResearch.com

It also places responsibility on health and social care commissioners to:1. Respond to any request for information and evidence within the timeframe set by the Tribunal2. Send a witness to attend the hearing as required3. Respond to the parent/young person and the LASEN team within 5 weeks of a recommendation being made, setting out the steps they have decided to take or giving reasons why they are not going to follow the recommendation.

How can a parent or young person request a health or social care recommendation?

If you wish to appeal against a local authority decision on any of the grounds above and want to request that the Tribunal considers your concerns about the health and /or social care aspects of the EHC plan, you should follow the normal process for bringing an appeal to the Tribunal and tick the box on the form relating to a health and/or social care appeal. Advice on making SEND appeals to the Tribunal and the appeal form is available at:

Taking part in the evaluation

There will be an independent evaluation of the trial to inform a decision on whether the new tribunal recommendation powers should be continued after the trial. The evaluation will run alongside the trial, from January 2018 to March 2021.

It is important that the evaluation is based on robust evidence, and the evaluators are therefore strongly encouraging participation from parents and young people. This could include taking part in a telephone or online interview just after the appeal hearing (or when the appeal process has been completed, if earlier), and then a follow-up interview 6 months later. These interviews will help the evaluators to gather the views of parents and young people on the appeal process, as well as identify how recommendations have been implemented and what the (early) impact has been.

Parents and young people that take part in the trial will receive a letter from the Tribunal explaining more about the evaluation and how their personal data will be stored confidentially and how it will be protected.

As a parent or young person, do I have to consider mediation as part of the trial?

Before you can register an appeal with the Tribunal, you must contact a mediation adviser within two months of the LA decision you wish to appeal and consider whether mediation might be a way to resolve your disagreement with the LA. If you want to appeal only about the school or other institution named in the EHC plan you do not have to contact a mediation adviser.

You can go to mediation about the health and social care elements of an EHC plan, but this is not compulsory. You can request recommendations about health and social care issues without having to receive mediation advice or attend mediation about those issues, provided there is also an education issue about which you are appealing.

Once a mediation adviser has been contacted, or once you have taken part in mediation, you will be issued with a certificate. This will be necessary if you are still unhappy and wish to progress to an appeal with the Tribunal. An appeal to the Tribunal must usually be made within two months of the decision about which the appeal is being made or one month following the issuing of the mediation certificate, whichever is the later.

If mediation resolves the educational issues, you will not be able to appeal to the Tribunal on any health and/or social care aspects of the EHC plan. However, mediation provides an opportunity for us to resolve disagreements and it can be completed more quickly than an appeal. It does not affect your right to make an educational appeal, and some aspects of the disagreement can go to appeal even when other aspects are resolved.

The details and any changes made as a result of your feedback will be published further down the Education, Health and Care Plan page.

Feedback on Transfer Review process

We want to know what you think about the Transfer Review process so please take a few moments to complete the following questions. Just circle or highlight your answer in bold and all your feedback will be considered by a group within the Local Authority which includes parental representatives to support ongoing improvements.

Education, Health and Care Plan Co-ordinators:

The LA has Education, Health and Care Plan Co-ordinators to advise on the education, health and care needs assessment process and Transfer Reviews. Parent/Carers and/or young person can make contact with an Education, Health and Care Plan Coordinator at any time before or during the process. Their contact details are

Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Information, Advice and Support Service (SENDIASS)

Families Information Service Hub (FISH) has a dedicated information, advice and support service for parent carers and children and young people (aged 0-25) with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). SENDIASS also has trained Independent Supporters who offer impartial advice through an Education, Health and Care Needs assessment and transfering from a statement of special educational needs to an Education, Health and Care Plan.

KIDS

KIDS offer information, advice, support for young people 16-25 with SEND. This can relate to information and advice about matters relating to the young people’s SEN or disabilities, including matters relating to health and social care across the whole of the East riding of Yorkshire. The information and support enables young people to participate in decisions about their future and is impartial, confidential and accessible. For more information contact KIDS:

More useful documents can be found on the SEND e-learning and guidance page including templates for EHC plans, annual and transfer reviews, gathering professionals views, parental contribution, one page/pupil profile and more.

Good quality EHC plans:

Council for Disabled Children have recently developed a resource to help practitioners write good quality EHC plans that meet both the letter and the spirit of the Children and Families Act 2014. The first part includes excerpts from real EHC plans, the second part has two EHC plans which draw on real examples (although the plans themselves relate to fictional children):

Disclaimer: Whilst FISH and partners work with service providers to try and ensure that the information contained within this website is accurate and up to date, no warranty is given as to the accuracy of the information. FISH and its partners do not accept any responsibility or liability for the information or links to information on websites supplied by providers or the service. FISH is an impartial service and does not recommend, support or endorse any services.

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